Lessons from the Toy Box

My little granddaughter wants something for Christmas "weely, weely, weely" bad. Unfortunately, her momma doesn't think it is an appropriate gift even though "every other little girl in the "who-e wuld" has at least one. Her mamma thinks it is inappropriate because I wouldn't let her have one for the same reason. I did it because my mother wouldn't let me have one for the same reason and my mother was VERY wise!

Whether or not the toy is bad is not the reason for this entry, however. After Listening to her share the unpleasantness of having to help her child to accept this I began to recall the days we went through the times of teaching our children to swim against the current. This is a lesson few parents even consider teaching their children. It is a huge lesson with lifetime benefits! How fortunate my granddaughter has parents who will hold the line and help her to learn it at a young age. It will make increasingly more profound choices in life be easier to make.

I was disgusted, but not surprised at an article on today's MSN Business Today: "Parents Desperate Plea, No more toy ads!" telling how a huge group of parents are trying to pressure toy makers not to advertise to their children. (here is an absurd portion:)

"Parents have trouble saying no," said Allison Pugh, a University of
Virginia sociology professor. She says parents often buy toys to avoid guilt and
ensure their children feel in sync with school classmates. "Even under
circumstances of dire financial straits, that's the last thing parents give up,"
said Pugh. "They'll contain their own buying for themselves before they'll make
their child feel different at school." Amanda Almodovar says she encounters
such families in her work as an elementary school social worker in Alamance
County, N.C., where homelessness and unemployment are rising. "I had one
parent who said she'd prostitute herself to get what her child wants," Almodovar
said. "It's heartbreaking. They feel inadequate as parents."

Children need to learn to accept the fact they can't have EVERYTHING they want and parents are morally responsible to teach them that lesson. That's why our nation is in the condition it is in. My mother could have told you that was going to happen! Another life lesson hangs in the balance here, too. My daughter discussed the difficulty in not knowing how to explain to her child why she couldn't have the toy; an explanation way beyond her readiness to understand. She realizes she is going to have to expect the child to accept a "No" that doesn't make sense to her. Isn't that what God asks us adults to do? I am ever so convinced many, MANY of life's lessons and trials can be taught early by good parents and tragedies and heartaches in later life could be avoided. There's a poster that "All I Needed to Learn In Life, I Learned in Kindergarten" well, I think it can and should be taught by parents. In looking back on our parenting, there is NO doubt we made many mistakes, but I think this might have been one we did right! I think the kids became really good "upstream swimmers!"